FOR THE AUTHORS ALREADY INCLUDED IN MY SHOUT OUTS:

If I cut back a little on the time that I spend here, how can I still make this work??

Did you know that some of your shout outs have been retweeted up to 83 times over an eight hour period?? (One was actually retweeted 147 times, while another one was tweeted 242 times, by business connections of one of my friends.) More and more authors would like to be included – and now many of them have joined in and are also retweeting your books.

So, my solution, at least for now, is to just keep on adding new authors. I’m hoping your shout outs will be retweeted more, simply because more authors are being included.

Those of you who’ve been tweeting with me since day one are usually getting multiple shout outs. I’m going to try to cut my list in half and alternate nights to save a little time. But I may not have to do this right away, or, at least, every night.

I’ve tried – there just isn’t an easy way to keep everyone organized – so I’ve been working my author list by memory. Now, I only have time to go through my list once.  If you pop up during the night, and I’ve already passed your name, I probably won’t include you until the following night.

Soon, I’m afraid, it’ll have to be a matter of continuing from the previous night. I’m going to begin sticking to a time schedule so I can get more writing and editing done during the day. I’ll probably have to begin taking off a night during the week – most likely Tuesday – since it’s consistently the slowest night.

But not by much!!(And this was contradicted on 2-24!) Would you believe Monday night is usually the busiest, with Saturday a close second?

It’s difficult keeping track of everyone involved if I add too many new people at once.  If you’re an author who’d like to be included, please be patient. As long as you’ve been retweeting the other authors, your name’s already on my list. You’re not wasting your time by continuing to retweet the author shout outs while you’re waiting for me to include you – these are the authors who will(hopefully) tweet you once you’re added!

I’m mostly an observer in this process. I’d say about sixty percent of you understand the way this should work. I’m going to post a separate piece about maximizing your tweets and why I think that, as a group, we’re all using twitter more effectively this way.

And this brings me to an important point:

Supporting other authors with your tweets.

Most of the other authors will support you if you continue to retweet them throughout the night. Some of you quit retweeting the other authors once I’ve added you.  It’s true – as long as I see you before I begin my shout outs, your shout out will always be included.  Keep in mind – my messages go in and out of my notification box very quickly – so I may not always see you.  I’d tweet everyone on my list if I had the time.  I also try to include occasional shout out for authors who’ve been following me since the beginning.

But, if you want to maximize the amount of times you’re retweeted during the night, you need to follow and retweet these other authors whenever you’re on twitter.

Many of these authors already have a following, so they’re retweeted nightly anyway. But even though the highest number of retweets usually go to the authors who continue to retweet each other throughout the night, it’s not necessary to participate.

If you have jobs, kids, or are even writing another book, I understand. And there are other ways to maximize your tweets. I have a friend who can’t be here at night, but usually receives 20-40 retweets anyway! And you know what?? First time authors are getting retweeted just as often as bestselling authors – and sometimes more!!

Maximizing Your Tweets:

• Come back and retweet the shout outs from my site. I don’t ever erase anything!
• Follow and tweet the other authors who’re participating – so that they’re more likely to tweet your author shout outs. This may not always be right away, if you’ve recently been added. So retweeting these other authors’ tweets, besides retweeting my author shout outs, should get their attention. I’ll try to provide a page at my blog with a list of all the authors who participate, and I’ll be sure to highlight those who join in nightly or often.
• Communicate and say hello and thanks. Some authors aren’t too chatty on twitter, and many won’t answer you back. But then again, you’re more likely to be remembered if you reach out a little (this, I think, has helped me a lot!)

Okay, so now that I’ve listed all the basics, I’ll continue to tell you why.

About a year ago, when I first set up on twitter, I’d been told by a marketer friend that it would be helpful for selling my books.

My first day on twitter, I looked at a tweet through the eyes of a reader; a simple message with a book title, a bunch of hashtags (I didn’t have a clue what they stood for), and a link to a book that I could barely make out amongst all the hashtags. And I thought to myself, what would make me buy that author’s book?

My answer was absolutely nothing.

But then I moved on, and began tweeting authors. Gradually, I began to grow followers, and then I somehow became involved with a few of the retweet groups.  I made a lot of good friends, and acquired a bunch of new followers, but I also began losing many of my writer followers.

When I actually won 700 followers, I thought to myself – this is silly.  I was half-serious when I told my friend on twitter – who’d just let me in on what was going on after all these new people began following me – that’s great, but since none of them appear to speak English, they probably won’t be interested in reading my books.

This was when I realized I needed to make my time on twitter more efficient. Several of my author friends were doing author shout outs. Why not try to do the same, but with a little more pizzazz?  I think that, subconsciously, I was recalling my first day on twitter, and the book tweet I noticed, that never even encouraged me to open up its link.

I began with several authors who were following me already.  Many of them were tweeting their own books daily, so this made it easier.

It’s been almost six months now – I can barely even remember when everything began to change. What started out as please follow shout outs developed into genre hashtags. I think what helped the most were the cover pictures of everyone’s books. This is still important to me, and I believe it’s important with developing reader recognition for your books.

But, I’ll get more into the hows and whys as time progresses. I’m going to develop my blog so that it’s more useful for authors on twitter. When I have time, I’ll even list a page with symbols, so you’ll be able to copy and paste them to use, as well as providing links to valuable websites.

Have a good one everyone!!